Derrick Brown​​ worked his way through a sea of well-wishers, ping-ponging through hugs and congratulations. He only had one arm available for each embrace because the other was clutching the handle of a briefcase emblazoned with the St. Cloud Cathedral hockey logo — a little brown piece of luggage that’s come to symbolize the Crusaders’ season motto: “Unfinished Business.”

One hour earlier Saturday afternoon, his team defeated Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin in the Minnesota state boys hockey tournament Class A final, capping a dominant 27-4 season that brought a state hockey championship to the city of St. Cloud for the first time and washed away the sour taste of an upset loss in the section final in 2018 and a run that ended in the state semifinals the year before that.

Their business now very much finished, the briefcase was in for a brutal postgame celebration.

“We said at the beginning of the year we had unfinished business,” Brown said, “and today we trashed the briefcase.”

The Crusaders fly off the bench to celebrate the school’s first state championship. They’d made it to the semifinals two years prior and vowed “unfinished business” this time. (Nick Wosika)

Trashed it?

“He was just giving us a speech after and he just chucked it and said, ‘business is finished,'” said forward Jack Smith, the Minnesota Duluth commit whose decision to turn down a chance to play for the USA 17-and-under team and return to Cathedral his junior season launched the phrase that defined this group.

A great team that always tracked to be there at the end had achieved its goal, and in the process denied Greenway — the small school from the Iron Range that fought for every inch of what it got and for one period, at least, kept a most improbable dream very much alive.

Up on the concourse, Brown and his players were still reveling with friends, family and a scuffed-up briefcase behind Section 114 at Xcel Energy Center when an arena employee burst in to break up the euphoria, practically right in Brown’s ear.

The concourse needed to be cleared. It was time to go to Gate 4. The buses would pick up the team there.

St. Cloud Cathedral hardly had to sweat to get here.

The Crusaders cruised through the Section 6A playoffs, winning their three games by a combined score of 21-1. In the final, the Crusaders got revenge on Alexandria — the team that stunned them to keep them out of the state tournament a year ago.

The Crusaders kept rolling at state. They won their quarterfinal game over North Branch 7-0, then beat East Grand Forks 6-2 in the semis.

But it was no walk in the park Saturday.

Donte Lawson — the Raiders’ brilliant forward who seems to always be on the ice and always generating scoring chances — scored the opening goal on a power play just 2:20 into the game, walking in on Crusaders’ star goalie Noah Amundson and roofing one over his shoulder from the edge of the circle. That gave the Crusaders their first deficit in a game since before the section playoffs began.

“I always knew that no matter what, all the adversity we battled through, I knew at the end we’d be here,” Greenway forward Donte Lawson said. (Nick Wosika)

Two minutes later, a wild sequence might well have decided the game. The Crusaders pressed into the Raiders’ zone and C.J. Zins fired in a shot from inside the blue line. It tipped off Luke Schmidt’s stick and appeared to go in. Cathedral players began to celebrate, the goal light came on, but the refs said no goal. Play continued and on the ensuing rush on the other end, Greenway took advantage of the confusion and Lawson found the net on a loose puck in front.

Officials reviewed the whole sequence and discovered the initial Crusaders shot went in, then corrected the call and changed the goal from Greenway to Cathedral. What looked like a 2-0 deficit for Cathedral and sparked a raucous group of Raiders fans instead became a 1-1 game.

“I’m going to be honest, I’ve been kind of anti- having the instant replay down here because we don’t have it all year,” Brown said, “and (now) I’m very, very thankful that they do. Everyone on the bench knew it was a goal, we could see from our angle that it went in. You know, the ref didn’t see it that way, and that was fine. Then they went down and scored and you’re thinking, ‘Are we really going to be down 2-nothing after we just tied up the game?'”

The Crusaders weren’t, and the break had another benefit for Brown’s group, experiencing something like adversity on the ice for the first time in a while.

“We kind of had a little moment there, too, where we could get all the guys in and just say, ‘No matter what happens on this call, we just gotta relax and play hockey,'” Brown said. “And I thought from that moment on, we kind of got back into our game and played a lot better than we had up until that moment.”

A key review gave the Crusaders an early tying goal and a chance to regroup. “I thought from that moment on, we kind of got back into our game,” head coach Derrick Brown said. (Nick Wosika)

Jackson Savoie made it 2-1 Cathedral 9 1/2 minutes later when Greenway goalie Logan Wright misplayed a puck behind the net and left himself exposed. But the Raiders still had something left. Cameron Lantz tied it 25 seconds later on the same power play, a shot from distance that found its way through traffic and past Amundson.

That would be all for the Raiders’ magic.

Savoie and Smith added goals nearly 13 minutes apart in the second period, Nate Warner tacked on an empty-netter and after a rare slow start, a Cathedral team that outscored opponents an average of a little better than 5-2 during the season had won 5-2. The long championship drought in St. Cloud came to an end in St. Paul.

“State championships are kind of a once-in-a-lifetime-type thing,” Brown said. “It’s a dream come true for me, and I know it’s a dream come true for all these guys. … There is no better ending than what just happened.”

“That was always the goal — to get to this game and bring it home and that’s what we did today,” Smith added. “Finally hearing that buzzer go off and knowing you’re state champions is just amazing.”

It’s a feeling the Raiders wanted so badly to have for themselves.

While Cathedral had cruised to the title game, Greenway had to dig for its spot. The Raiders won their last six regular-season games to enter the section playoffs at 12-13, the No. 3 seed. In the section final, they drew top-seeded and top-ranked Hermantown, a favorite to win it all. Greenway fell behind 2-1 in the first, tied it in the second and nearly three full periods of hockey later, won it on a goal from Lawson in double overtime.

From there, the Raiders rallied twice against Delano to win their state quarterfinal, helped by two goals and two assists from Lawson. They took down No. 1 seed Mahtomedi in the semis thanks to a goal from Lawson’s equally excellent linemate Ben Troumbly.

As their momentum built up, so did the support. The Raiders’ side of the arena was awash in green with fans from the chain of small towns over three hours away from St. Paul, all there to see whether the Raiders could win a 12th straight game and cap off the most improbable of state tourney runs.

And for a time Saturday, it looked like the team from the school with an enrollment of 269, the program that nearly folded a decade ago due to low participation, a group that asks a lot out of its top lines and — like its opponent — was playing for the third time in four days, might have one more giant-killing trick up its sleeve.

“It’s definitely surreal,” said Lawson, who made a point to salute the fans as he accepted the Herb Brooks Award on the ice after the game. “Playing with this group of kids growing up, it’s awesome with our families and our parents and our friends always coming to the games and then seeing out-of-town people coming and the whole community really getting together and having a good time, and it’s awesome to see.”

The significance wasn’t lost on the opposing coach.

“If you weren’t there to today to see that green, Greenway, the Iron Range, everything they had going — the storyline was pretty good,” Brown said. “We knew we were the villain, obviously. … That’s OK. That’s just the way it had to be.”

After a 6-13 start, Greenway won 11 games in a row to make an unlikely run to the state title game before coming up short Saturday. It was the Raiders’ first trip to state since 2001. (Nick Wosika)

As the game ended, Greenway head coach Grant Clafton led his team over to the glass in front of their supporters to pay tribute.

“I feel that we got a lot of respect from our community, and the hockey community and really the entire state,” Clafton said, “and it’s a good chance for them to really take a breath and look at what they put together and (for us to) give respect back and show appreciation.”

The Raiders have come a long way since a loss outdoors in below-zero temperatures on Lake Bemidji on Hockey Day Minnesota handed them a 13th loss in their first 19 games. Can you believe they were able to make it this far?

“I always knew that no matter what, all the adversity we battled through, I knew at the end we’d be here,” Lawson said. “We stuck together as a group throughout the season, through the time, and … we’re here.”

The arena employee apologized for breaking up the party, but the Crusaders still obeyed.

The Cathedral contingent made its way down to Gate 4, where some Greenway players still lingered, chatting with their families and waiting for their bus ride, too. Among them was Lawson, the face of a team that had captured the hearts of many.

It was here where the two stories came to an end, with two deserving programs at the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, separated by a couple of swings of momentum in a game of hockey, both waiting for a bus inside the same gate. One with a state championship trophy, one without. Both with plenty to be proud of.

(Top photo of St. Cloud Cathedral: Nick Wosika)

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Zack Pierce is the Managing Editor for The Athletic Minnesota. Before that, he spent over 10 years in various editorial capacities at FOXSports.com after a brief stint at ESPN.com. A Minnesota native, he co-founded the Trent Tucker Fan Club and refused to interact with society for several hours after the 1998 NFC championship game. He can be reached at [email protected]